First off, you’re not trying to be funny. You’re trying to be offensive and mask it with humor. Half the men in that room with you didn’t play football. How come to don’t find it “funny” when they ask about routes?

Secondly Cam, you don’t have to play football to know football. The same goes for any sport that reporters cover. In fact, you don’t even have to have played football to coach football. Mike Leach, Paul Johnson, David Cutcliffe just to name a few. If that notion were true, does that mean any White House correspondent had to be a congressman before covering politics? Would I have to be a former police office or detective before I became a crime reporter? No. Reporters become experts on their topics. They read. They study. They watch film. GASP! A female watches film?

How do I know most the men in that room didn’t play football? Because they were busy going to journalism school and working their way through small market newspapers and tv stations. People don’t ever seem to have a problem with whether or not the male play-by-play announcer played the game. Most of the ones at ESPN have called ten different sports in their lifetime. You think they played all ten?

To the people who say “He was joking. Lighten up!” He wasn’t joking. He was being snarky and rude, and he would have never made that comment if a man in the room asked it. Those same people haven’t had to listen to the countless comments and eyerolls women get on a daily basis in this field. I don’t ever complain about it, because I chose this field. I knew what I was getting into. But I have a huge problem when an athlete degrades a female reporter in public like that.

That’s all I have on the topic. There’s postseason baseball on. I need to go watch it so next time I ask a pitcher about his repertoire I know what a slider is.